[Kabar-indonesia] Commission Finds Gross Rights Abuses In Timor Leste

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Friday, June 23, 2006

Commission finds gross rights abuses in Timor Leste 

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Commission for Truth and Friendship (KKP) has
identified 14 incidents of gross human rights
violations it says occurred in 1999 around the time
the former province of East Timor voted to split from
Indonesia.

Co-chairman of the commission, Timor Leste's Dionisio
Babo Soares said the 14 cases included a clash between
members of pro-Indonesian militia and pro-independence
groups in Liquica, a murder at the house of Manuel
Carascalao and a shooting incident near Bishop Carlos
Ximenes Belo's residence. 

"All can be considered gross violations of human
rights," Soares said after a meeting with the House of
Representatives Commission I on foreign affairs and
human rights. 

Soares said the Commission for Truth and Friendship,
jointly set up by Indonesia and Timor Leste,
identified the cases after studying thousands of pages
of reports and the proceedings of an ad hoc human
rights tribunal set up in Indonesia. 

"We have studied all the documents, including ones
prepared by the National Commission for Human Rights
and the 2500-page report produced by United
Nations-sanctioned Serious Crimes Unit," Soares said. 

Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, the commission co-chairman
from Indonesia, said that to corroborate the reports,
members of the commission had also collected evidence
and interviewed victims in Liquica, Suai and several
locations in Dili. 

"We also plan to meet with a number of people who were
implicated in the cases," Benjamin said. 

Benjamin, however, declined to release the names of
individuals believed to be behind the rights
violations. 

He only smiled when asked whether the commission also
planned to question Gen. (ret) Wiranto, the chief of
the Indonesian Military at the time of the violence. 

The United Nations has estimated that at least 1,500
people were killed by militia groups backed by the
Indonesian Military in the aftermath of the 1999
referendum, in which more than 90 percent of the East
Timorese vote to split from Indonesia. 

The commission, modeled on similar restorative justice
bodies set up in South Africa, Chile and Argentina,
has no powers to prosecute alleged human rights
violators. However, it can give recommendations to the
Indonesian and Timor Leste governments to grant
amnesties to alleged perpetrators, and to compensate
and rehabilitate victims. 

Its 10-member panel is made up of a mixture of legal
experts and human rights figures. Half are from this
country and half from Timor Leste. 

Human rights groups and the Catholic Church in East
Timor have criticized the commission as a attempt to
bury the past rather than pursue justice. The body was
set up last year after the United Nation's expressed
its dissatisfaction with Indonesia's earlier attempts
to bring the perpetrators of rights violations to
justice. At the time, it threatened to take the cases
to an international tribunal. 

Responding to the commission's findings, chairman of
Commission I Theo L. Sambuaga called on the Indonesian
Military and the Ministry of Defense to cooperate with
the KKP. 

"We will urge our partners, in this case, the TNI and
the Ministry of Defense to support the work of this
commission," Theo said. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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